Chapter 51 – Vale #2
His left hand separates from mine. When he holds it up between us, there are dark, curled lines, woven into a band, almost like a tattoo, wrapping around his finger. “You put a ring on it,” he says simply, and it takes me a moment to understand what he means.
“I did that,” I gasp. “I hurt you. I burned you.”
I start shaking and the tears keep coming as I stare, horrified, at the burn on his finger.
I grab his hand gently, pulling it closer.
I kiss it. When I press my lips to it I realize it’s smooth skin, not burned at all.
I pull back and turn his hand over. The black woven band wraps all the way around his finger.
My brows knit together in confusion. I turn his hand back around. It really does look like a ring.
Oliver grabs my hand and lifts it to cover his. “Vale, look.”
There’s a ring around my finger as well. “Oh, shit.” It’s woven like knots, intertwining.
“See, I thought you’d be happier when you married me,” he says, then chuckles like this is funny.
I turn my hand over, then back. It’s still there. “What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
I look up at Oliver, and I’m taken aback by his wide grin. “Oh, sweetheart, it’s your magic. It bound us. It left a mark you understand, that you recognize, wedding rings.”
“But I didn’t,” I whisper, shaking my head. “I didn’t do that.”
Oliver rolls over beside me, pulling me against him. “What were you thinking when you started glowing?”
It takes me a moment to remember. “I was grateful I found my soulmate. I was thinking about your love and how much I love you. I was thinking about how I wanted to spend . . . ” I couldn’t say it.
“Tell me, sweetheart,” he whispers into my hair.
I cover my face with my hands, hiding, unable to look at him. “How I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know I could do that to you.”
“You think I’m mad?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what to think. I was only human and now it feels like I’m more. I didn’t have any kind of magic before I met you. Much less some way to permanently mark you without your consent. I didn’t mean to. I wouldn’t blame you if you were mad at me.”
“Funny enough, last night I imagined how you’d burn me.
I wanted you to mark my skin so the whole world knew I belonged to you.
Trust me when I say, I wanted it, this. I want the world to know I’m yours.
If I didn’t want to be bound to you, I could have fought it, but I didn’t want to.
Tell me you understand that I chose you,” he explains, and my heart flutters like butterflies dancing around in my chest.
“I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t understand how I did it. I don’t know what I am.” As the words leave my lips, I know that’s not true. His grandfather did something to me, but I’d promised I wouldn’t tell Oliver. Maybe that’s what caused this.
“You’re exactly who you’re supposed to be, Vale.
You’re my mate, my fate, and hopefully my wife when you’re ready to be of course.
I think you should know that a mate is more than a marriage license.
When a bond is accepted, that’s it, two halves of the same soul become one.
I accepted your bond, your claim on me. You’re it for me.
I’m yours. But I understand that this is happening very fast. If it’s too much, I get it. ”
“Do you really want to marry me?” I whisper, hiding my face in his chest.
“In my mind, I’m already yours. We don’t need any kind of ceremony, but if you wanted to be married in front of your family, if you wanted Nick to walk you down the aisle, then I would be at the altar waiting for you. I’d be proud to be your husband, Vale. I’m proud to be your mate.”
I roll onto my back and stare up at the sky. I take a deep breath. “Oliver, I’m eighteen.”
“Trust me, I’m well aware,” he says deadpan, like this is something he’s thought about a lot. “I’m old enough to have fathered you over a hundred times. I admit it, it was difficult to overcome how old you are.”
I hadn’t thought about how he’d feel about my age because I only learned how old he was last night. I feel guilty for not having tried to place myself in his shoes. I should have asked him how he felt about it.
Oliver places his hand on my abdomen, the one with my ring on his finger. I did that. I claimed him. I married him, I think. I didn’t know I was doing it, but it matters to him.
“I told Gramps I wouldn’t get married young, like my mother. I told him I wouldn’t give everything up to be a wife,” I explain. “My mother was twenty when she married my father. I’m eighteen. He’s going to murder us both.”
Oliver chuckles. “Yeah, I’m not sure how we’re going to explain this.” He holds out his hand above me. He shows me his ring again and the smile that spreads across his face is genuine.
“Oh, God, I’m in so much trouble. How on earth am I going to explain that I fucked Silver Spring’s newest, most eligible bachelor, and he liked it so much he let me force him into marriage?” I laugh as soon as the words leave my mouth.
Oliver jerks me closer. “Is that what happened?” he growls, and my core clenches.
“No, of course not. I hypnotized you. That’s the only explanation,” I say, then chuckle.
He sits up and slides his palms between my legs, pulling them apart, then sneaks between them. “I don’t know, Vale. I don’t believe the hypnosis angle.”
I shrug my shoulders. “Well, that’s what people are going to say. That’s the only way people are going to believe I managed to snag a man like you. Or worse, they’ll say you knocked me up.”
One of Oliver’s eyebrows quirk up. “I’m very familiar with the ins and outs of getting a female pregnant,” he says with a smirk. “I want to learn how you’d hypnotize me though. You have to show me, or I’ll never believe it.”
I shake my head, lifting one foot and pressing it against his shoulder to push him back.
He smirks at me, of course, and I spread my legs, bending the other at the knee, one foot flat on the floor.
I bite my bottom lip when I notice how stiff his cock gets.
“You’re very sexy,” I tell him, making him wait.
He starts to speak, but I wave my finger around to silence him. “Kiss my ankle,” I demand, and it makes those cute dimples show up.
He grabs my calf and turns his head. He presses a soft kiss against the inside of my ankle, then he turns back to look at me, waiting for my next command. This could be so much fun. “Do you want to taste my skin, Oliver?”
“Yes,” he says, the word spoken so softly I barely hear him.
“Trail your tongue up the inside of my leg till you get to my thigh. Be a good boy, and I might let you taste something else.” The fact is he could break this hold at any moment and fuck me, and I wouldn’t complain. I’d win either way.
Oliver grips my calf harder and leans in, breathing me in. His tongue peeks out and licks right above my ankle. I take in a deep breath as he gets farther north. His warm, wet tongue makes my leg shake.
“Now wait right there. I want to feel your teeth too. Focus the soft and the sharp. Tongue and teeth.”
Oliver closes his eyes for a moment, his jaw going tense, then he opens his mouth wide and I see the edge of his fangs. He scrapes them against my skin, the movement driving me wild. I lose it. “Oh, God,” I moan. “That feels so good. Why do I like that so much?”
He lifts his eyes up to meet mine as he licks over one sharp canine. My core spasms with the visual. Damn. I might scream. Why did I start this? I want him. I’m already wet for him.
He continues up until his teeth threaten on the inside of my thigh, right above my knee. “Did you know I can make you come from sinking my teeth into your flesh, right here?” he says, his voice a gravelly tease that makes my core clench again.
I don’t hesitate. “Do it,” I whisper.
That smirk is back, that devilish look making my panties wet.
His long hair has fallen over his shoulders, teasing my skin where it hits.
My body is on edge, already scaled the wall and just waiting to plunge over the edge with one of these mind-altering orgasms that Oliver is so good at giving.
I hold my breath for a moment just to get some control.
“Breathe through it,” he growls, just like the monster did last night.
There’s a moment when the music fades and the pounding throb between my thighs stops.
It’s like most of my senses are dulled with inactivity, like time stands still.
Only when he leans in and sinks his teeth into my inner thigh does time suddenly speed back up.
The pain is sharp, his teeth sinking deeper into my flesh than what I’m used to.
It’s so intense, it sears my flesh and I sit up screaming.
I grab the back of his head, trying to pull him away, but he doesn’t let me move him.
I heave air into my lungs, thankful when he pulls those sharp fangs out.
His hot breath hits the wound, and I shiver at the feeling.
Then he wrecks me. As Oliver takes the first pull of my blood, his eyes look up into mine.
His mouth is suckling rhythmically, and I feel it everywhere.
My core spasms involuntarily, and I explode.
I slam my hand down between his shoulder blades, digging my nails into his back.
I try to cling to him so I don’t float away, and he hisses against my thigh.
I cry out as I come undone. I’m so dizzy with pleasure I worry I’m going to faint.
One of my hands has slid into his hair, cradling his head.
My other hand claws at his skin between his shoulders, holding on tight.
I whimper as the muscles in my core spasm and squeeze tight.